Axios

A coalition of blocs loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Hadi al-Amiri, an Iran-backed militia chief, has emerged from Iraq's disputed election and is now seeking to ease concerns in Washington as it works to form a government, Al-Monitor reports.

The details: A leader in Al-Amiri's Fatah Alliance, Karim al-Nuri, said in a statement on Wednesday that the coalition "is in tune with the vision of Iran and the United States." The coalition is viewed as a win for Iran, which will be able to "maintain its influence" in Iraq, Al-Monitor notes. The coalition is currently sitting at 141 seats, 24 seats below the 165 needed to form a government, per Al-Monitor.

A classified report from Israel's foreign ministry raises doubts over President Trump's optimistic statements about his summit with Kim Jong-un, and determines the U.S. retreated from its positions on several issues relating to North Korea's nuclear program.

Behind the scenes: The classified report, which I obtained a copy of, provides an initial analysis of the summit. It was circulated yesterday by the research department of the Israeli foreign ministry to all Israeli embassies around the world and to many senior officials at the Prime Minister's office and other government agencies.

In a meeting with G7 leaders last week, President Trump said Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks Russian, Buzzfeed News reports, citing two diplomatic sources.

Why it matters: Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian territory in 2014, leading to universal condemnation in the West and Russia's expulsion from what was then the G-8. Western allies took great pains to show a united front and declare that such aggression wouldn't be tolerated. Trump is taking a far different approach to Russia, and in this case is making a similar argument to the one put forth by the Kremlin.

While U.S.–Iran tensions simmer, Iraq — long a flashpoint between the two countries — is nearing a major political transformation. Iraq last held elections in 2010 and the winner — secular nationalist Ayad Allawi, who carried 91 out of 329 parliamentary seats — didn’t take power. This was largely due to American and Iranian backing of the sectarian Dawa Party’s Nouri al-Maliki.

The backdrop: Under Maliki’s leadership, Iraq’s military collapsed against the Islamic State. Millions of Iraqis were displaced. The U.S., which had begun to withdraw in 2010, had to return thousands of troops to stem the chaos, and Iran still managed to take a dominant position in Iraqi politics. In 2014 a different Dawa party leader, current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, was pushed into power.

A newly released North Korean documentary on the summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un includes footage of crowds cheering Kim, and of Trump saluting a North Korean general.

Why it matters: The video Kim smiling alongside the president of the U.S., which has historically been depicted as an evil power in North Korean propaganda. It also provides North Koreans a rare glimpse of a glitzy, modern city. The documentary has been aired four times in North Korea, per 38 North's Martin Williams.

The World Cup kicks off today in Russia, and the rather weak home team has a chance for victory — they're up against Saudi Arabia — so the Kremlin has seized the moment to announce some painful economic reforms.

Why it matters: Russia's working-age population is projected to shrink by 20% between now and 2050, so the decision to raise retirement ages (from 60 to 65 for men by 2028; from 55 to 63 for women by 2034) seems sensible, though it's the first hike in modern Russian history, per Meduza. Meanwhile, Putin says fixing the economy and reducing poverty will be top priorities in his new six-year term. The decision to raise the value-added tax from 18% to 20% is expected to bring in $32 billion over that period.

Japan is reportedly putting together plans for a possible August summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, according to Japan's Yomiuri newspaper.

The details: The newspaper reports, citing government sources, that one option for the summit would include Abe visiting Pyongyang. There is reportedly a second option if travels to Pyongyang fall through, the newspaper added, where Abe could meet Kim "on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum to be held in September in Vladivostok, if the North Korean leader attends," per Reuters.

The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday condemned Israel for using excessive force against Palestinians as it passed a resolution that berated the Middle Eastern country for recent deadly violence at the Gaza border, per the AP.

The details: The body also rejected a U.S.-backed amendment, which condemns Hamas for firing rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas. Over 100 rockets were fired at Israel, per the AP. More than 120 Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli military fire.

Senior U.S. officials involved in drafting President Trump's Middle East peace plan pushed back on claims from Palestinian leadership and from some officials in Europe that the plan will be biased in favor of Israel. One official told me, "Our peace plan is not a 'Bibi plan,'" referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Why it matters: Palestinian President Abbas' aides have said the U.S. peace plan will be "dead on arrival" and claimed the U.S. team has essentially been carrying Netanyahu's water for the last year and a half. The U.S. has been trying to pass messages to the Palestinians in public and in private through several Arab countries, asking them not to reject the peace plan out of hand.

One of many questions in the aftermath of the Singapore summit is whether President Trump might seek a similar breakthrough with Iran.

The big picture: Such a meeting would be just as unprecedented as the Trump-Kim encounter: No American president has met an Iranian president since the 1979 revolution. Even President Obama, whose administration negotiated a major nuclear agreement with Iran, was spurned when he sought a handshake with President Hassan Rouhani at the UN.

American and Chinese corporate titans share something in common: jittery slavishness to their president, and sometimes even each other's president. In the U.S., presidential tweets, and even the threat of one, send powerful CEOs scrambling to announce hiring sprees, factory openings, and profit repatriation.

• In China, the driver for seeing things President Xi Jinping's way — quite apart from survival and staying out of prison — is Belt and Road, his planet-spanning infrastructure initiative.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters today that the U.S. hopes North Korea will take major steps toward dismantling its nuclear weapons program by the end of President Trump’s first term, per Bloomberg.

Between the lines: Pompeo bristled at what he called the “ludicrous” and “insulting” suggestion that Trump had not secured specific commitments from North Korea on denuclearization. He also sought to counter criticism that Trump had made the only major concession of the summit — freezing military exercises with South Korea. Pompeo said Trump “made very clear” to Kim Jong-un that the policy would only hold so long as “good faith” talks continue.

President Trump tweeted Wednesday morning to argue that suspending military exercises between the United States and South Korea — announced yesterday as a part of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — would save the U.S. "a fortune."

What they're saying: Experts view Trump's argument as geopolitically short-sighted, acknowledging that — while it might technically reduce costs in the short-term — it could stand to reduce the country's military readiness and force projection in Asia, which could create massive long-term consequences and costs.

Michael Morell — former CIA acting and deputy director, whose North Korea-watching dates back to the early 1990s (a quarter century) — told me:

The meeting was historic, but the agreement was not.

You're an older New Yorker trying to bond with a culture-obsessed young gun who's less than half your age. There's a language barrier. You're tall; he's squat. You've had words in the past. Everyone's watching to see how you'll pull this off. This is the first time you've met, and you don't have much time. Everything about this could be awkward. Why not a movie?

What happened: President Trump's wooing of Kim Jong-un at the Singapore summit included the iPad showing (in English and Korean) of a "Destiny Pictures" movie trailer, made by the White House's National Security Council, starring themselves saving the world.

President Trump landed back in the Washington, D.C. area on Wednesday morning, announcing his arrival with a tweet touting the results of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Yes, but: Many experts believe that the joint statement Trump signed with Kim is quite vague — and it fails to include concrete, verifiable steps toward denuclearization for North Korea.